1. Technical Field
The field of the present invention is devices for collecting and aligning a stack of sheets of a recording medium.
2. Background Art
In the case of office machines, for example printers, copiers and the like, it is frequently necessary to collect the sheet-form recording medium to form a stack. This collected stack must be aligned in order to process the stack further, for example in order to clip it, to staple it, or to deposit it with or without offset in an output.
Others have addressed aligning sheets in a stack. For example, DE 2 363 224 discloses moving sheets against an alignment stop on a tray using elastic carrier fingers which are disposed on a rotatably driven shaft. However, in this device, when a next sheet is supplied to the stack, it can displace an uppermost, already deposited sheet. Through frictional engagement such engagement distributes the alignment of the uppermost sheet. Therefore, there exists a need for an improved device such that the alignment of the stack, which has been supplied sheets from a carrier, is not disturbed by subsequently supplied sheets.